Several crowdsourcing campaigns from the public are trying to raise the funds to obtain the video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford allegedly smoking crack. The video of Ford smoking crack comes with a price tag of $200,000, but some online campaigns for the crack video have already raised tens of thousands of dollars after just 24 hours. The Vancouver Province raised $34,000 in just one day, but dropped their campaign when U.S. based website Gawker launched a similar one.

Toronto's conservative mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine on video is being sold to the highest bidder. The anonymous owner of the tape originally told Gawker it was filmed within the last six months and also provided a photo of Ford standing next to Anthony Smith, a 21-year-old college student who was killed two months ago in a gang shooting outside a Toronto nightclub. Gawker reporter John Cook, who traveled to Toronto to observe the video, says that it shows the mayor, "red-faced and sweaty, heaving with each breath," lighting up a crack pipe and inhaling.

The owner of the tape is reportedly hoping to sell it for at least $100,000, which Gawker refused to pay. Cook claims that CNN contacted Ford's office about the tape and his attorney Dennis Morris fired off a cease-and-desist letter to Gawker. "Mayor Ford denies [this] took place, and if such posting occurs, it is false and defamatory, and you will be held legally accountable," wrote Morris, "In reference to the photo you wish to publish, Mayor Ford has his photo taken daily, sometimes with others."

The Toronto Star reports that two of their reporters have seen the video three times, claiming that it is currently "being shopped around by a group of Somali men involved in the drug trade." They say the video was shot on a smartphone by the man who supplied crack cocaine to the mayor. In the video, Ford reportedly says "I'm fucking right wing," and also utters homophobic and racist slurs. Morris has responded by telling the Star that by viewing a video it is "impossible to tell" what a person is doing. "How can you indicate what the person is actually doing or smoking?" he said.

The mayor sparked controversy earlier this week when he sprinted out of a council meeting and slapped "Ford for Mayor" refrigerator magnets on dozens of cars in the parking lot.